The Desert
by Snows Of Yester-Year
Summary: She felt like she was lost in a baked and barren land. It was lucky for her that someone managed to pull her out. Korrasami oneshot.


"Has she woken up yet?"

Blinding pain filled her to the brim, but her throat refused the command her brain sent it to cry out. The stabbing ache in her head and the raging burn that blazed down her arm and across her stomach consumed her completely, leaving nothing but fire and ashes of agony.

The voice, low and deep, sounded like it was garbling through deep water, drifting to ears from far away. Maybe if she gets to the water, she can put out this fire.

"No," echoed a second voice, soft and sad and higher than the last. "Nothing yet."

Her parched throat and cracked lips burned. She thought she tasted blood. Water. Get to the water. Quench the desert on her tongue and extinguish the inferno in her chest. That was her only thought.

A sigh, filtered across an ocean. "Call me if something changes."

_No! _she wanted to scream. _Keep talking! I need to follow your voice! I need..._

Footsteps pinged away like radar, further and further until there was a click and they were too muffled for her straining ears to catch. Dizziness washed down on her, and she managed a soft moan. _Water._

"Korra?"

The second voice rippled across the distance to her, smoothing itself over her aches and pains like balm. It steadied her mind, stopped it from teetering off the precipice into darkness again. Slowly, she fluttered her eyes open.

Bright illumination, white like death. It filled her eye sockets like sand poured from a bucket, itching and burning. She squeezed her lids shut against the invading grains of light, but the burrowed between the cracks anyway, slithering along the insides to dig into her eyes and force them open again.

She blinked blearily against the offending glare, the crashing desert waves settling into streams of electrical light. Precious water filled her eyes, filmy against the dryness. She could make out shapes. A window, curtains drawn. A lamp above her head, abrasive and horrible. A dark-haired someone leaning over her. Emeralds glinted through the haze. She felt a drop of soothing liquid slip from her the gaping cavity of her rib cage into her throat, sliding up to freeze over the flames long enough for her to remember how to speak the name.

"Asami...?"

A cool palm slid up her fevered cheek and gently traced her hair back from her face, thumb tracing the ridge of bone running beneath the hot skin of her face.

"Hey there, Ms. Avatar," she said, the song of her voice enough to settle the frazzled static in her ears. "You really had us worried, you know."

She wanted to reach up and pull Asami crashing down onto her, wanted to feel the ebb and flow of her tide across her body, wanted the waves of her hair and hands and lips to wash her clean.

She also wanted to ask what had happened, but just that name had been taxing enough.

She was suddenly aware of cool, crisp sheets beneath her, cradling her aching body. There was a soft pillow propped under her head. Where was she? Asami's mansion? An apartment? Some unknown room on Air Temple Island?

"Thirsty," she rasped, trying desperately to focus on Asami's face, clinging to the image with all of her might.

She slid from her vision. Whether that was Korra's mind slipping again or if Asami had moved, she was unsure. Her answer came when she felt a hand slide under her neck. It cradled her head and gently lifted her up a few inches. An arm pushing her upright, a yielding body for her to settle back on. Glass touched her lips, a ledge with a tilting angle, and then, suddenly, water. It swirled in her parched mouth, gliding down her throat. She gulped it down desperately. Too few precious seconds before the water stopped, the glass tilting back, her lips sticking to the surface briefly before the sting of its departure flared across them.

"Don't drink too fast," Asami admonished, voice hushed.

Korra couldn't drink it fast _enough. _Relief flooded her when the water returned. This time, she felt like it soaked into the baked cracks in her body, turning them into streams, seas, rivulets running down into her and putting out the flames with a hiss.

When Asami pulled the glass away this time, Korra's head felt clearer. After a moment, she managed to land on the realization that she was in a hospital, perched in a narrow bed. Her girlfriend stroked the side of her face with the back of her hand, and Korra shut her eyes contentedly at the gesture.

"Are you still thirsty?"

She slid her eyes open.

"Yeah," she said. "But not for water."

She stilled her hand with her knuckles resting against Korra's cheek. "What are you thirsty for, then?"

Asami sounded genuinely puzzled, which made her smile.

"You should kiss me," Korra said softly, lacking the energy to give Asami the witty go-around.

There was a soft, amused, affirming hum, and then soft lips found Korra's. The familiar taste and smell and feel of Asami put Korra more at ease than any amount of water could, and as chaste as the kiss was, it was one of the most wonderful sensations she had ever experienced.

Asami broke away, and Korra frowned lightly, but she didn't have the energy to complain. Instead, she turned her head and nuzzled Asami's neck.

"I guess I should explain, huh?" Asami said.

Much to her surprise, Korra shook her head.

"No," she managed. "Just...hold me a bit longer. Talk later."

There was a moment's pause before a pair of warm, comforting arms wrapped around Korra and pulled her closer. With a sigh, she rested against Asami's shoulder and waited for a much more peaceful sleep to visit her, glad that Asami had been there to pick Korra up when she fell.


End file.
